17 July 2017

A joint statement from the Barnet Bloggers - Children at Risk: Time to take responsibility

Cllr Reuben Thompstone

"There are widespread and serious failures in the services provided to
children and their families in Barnet. Inspectors identified a legacy of
widespread poor practice and ongoing systemic failures and services that
neither adequately ensure the safety, nor promote the welfare of children and
young people”.

Ofsted Inspection Report on Barnet Children’s Service
July 2017

Over nearly a decade of scrutiny by Barnet bloggers,
we have investigated and reported the seemingly endless sequence of scandals, blunders,
and political folly created by Barnet’s Conservative councillors. The
incomprehensible tale of the MetPro fiasco, the disgraceful confiscation of
travel passes for disabled residents, the cutting of vital respite care for
children at Mapledown School, which cares for children with profound
disabilities, the illegal CPZ parking charges, are only some of the many
examples of administrative incompetence – and worse – that we have exposed and pursued.

In all this time, in response to all of these
disastrous situations, not one Conservative member has taken responsibility for
the failure in services to what are very often the most vulnerable members of
our community.

No one could be more vulnerable than a child:
especially a child in care, whose well being has become the responsibility of
the local authority, standing as a corporate parent.

Yet now we see the emergence of a most damning report from OFSTED, one that
slates the provision of care services in Barnet for such children: a report
that should shame any local authority, and would – anywhere else but in Barnet.

“The vast majority of care planning is ineffective. There is a lack of
focus on measuring progress for children or their outcomes. When there is no
progress, this is not re-evaluated or escalated effectively. This leads to
drift and delay. This is particularly stark for a significant number of
children who are victims of chronic long-term neglect and emotional abuse, who
do not have the impact of this risk recognised, responded to or reduced,
despite spending long periods subject to child protection planning … ”.

“Young people who go missing from care receive a poor service, because
social workers do not find out enough about the risks to them. This means that
young people who go missing are not always kept safe enough from dangers, such
as gangs or adults sexually exploiting them”.

In any circumstances where there has been proven
wrongdoing, or a failure in standards, it is usually the case, in Barnet, that
officers are held responsible, and those elected members tasked with the
responsibility – and paid generous allowances for those duties – of overseeing
the enforcement of their own policies remain distanced from the consequences of
their actions. We believe that this is wrong, and that councillors should be
held accountable.

In this case, we believe, the fault lies in a serious
failure in leadership, oversight and scrutiny by the Children, Education,
Libraries and Safeguarding Committee, chaired by Conservative councillor Reuben
Thompstone.

The same committee was responsible for the Mapledown
cuts – later reversed, after protests from parents, and a public outcry; and
was also the instrument of approval for the devastating programme of cuts to
our library service, presented to residents as mere ‘refurbishment’, but which
has seen the closure of children’s libraries, and the removal of access for
under sixteen year olds from any library operating the newly unstaffed hours.

It seems to us that under this Conservative
administration, children are seen not as our most precious asset, but an easy
target for cuts, and the lowering of standards meant to ensure their
protection, and wellbeing.

In 2014 Tory members approved a cost cutting restructuring
of Family Services which has resulted in the use of agency social workers soaring
from none in 2013, to £3.05 million per annum in 2016/17.

With the average agency social worker staying just 202
days, there has been a constant turnover of staff, and throughout this period,
Children’s Services have been under constant pressure to meet the budget
savings forecast.

We believe that pressure on budgets for local social
workers responsible for ensuring the safety of young people has lead to the
near destruction of the service, and a situation where there are simply not the
resources to ensure vulnerable young people are given the life chances they
deserve.

This cannot possibly be in the best interests of the children of this borough.

We therefore make the following suggestions:

1. That there must be a full open, transparent, and independent public inquiry into what went wrong.

2. This inquiry must include a forensic audit of all correspondence between the Conservative administration and officers, regarding Children’s Services, to ensure that political interference has not, and cannot in future, prejudice the standard of care.

3. This inquiry should be concluded prior to May 2018, to allow the people of Barnet to pass their own judgement on the administration.

4. We call for the resignation of the Councillor in charge of Children’s Services, Cllr Reuben Thompstone.